<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Sumar Plurinational Parliamentary Group has urged RTVE to promote a debate within the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) on the possible expulsion of Israel from the Eurovision Festival in 2025, considering that “the acts perpetrated by the Israeli Army in the Gaza Strip” are not “compatible” with the “values” of this contest.</strong></h4> In a question to the Board of Directors of the RTVE Corporation for a written response, submitted on January 30 by the spokesman for Izquierda Unida, Enrique Santiago, and the deputy Francisco Sierra, Sumar (minority partner in Pedro Sánchez's coalition government) recalls that, before the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest, Slovenian public television asked the EBU for a "substantial debate" on Israel's participation in the contest at the request of "certain sectors of Slovenian society that demand Israel's expulsion from Eurovision." It also points out that this debate "was also transferred to the European Parliament, where 25 MEPs demanded Israel's expulsion," and that, at the beginning of March 2024, the Minister of Culture of the Government of Belgium, Bénédicte Linard, announced that she would ask the Belgian broadcaster RTBF to promote "the expulsion of Israel from the festival due to the events in the Gaza Strip." The text also recalls that, in the 2022 edition, the EBU decided to expel Russian public television from the organization due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The expulsion was justified “following a recommendation” made to it by “The Reference Group”, the governing body of the Eurovision Song Contest, which, relying “on the rules of the event and the values of the EBU”, considered that Russia's participation in the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest “would discredit the competition” and that it was necessary to “protect the values of a cultural competition that promotes international exchange and understanding”. In the written question, Sumar warns, “to understand the EBU's position on the expulsion of Israel from the Festival”, that “the main sponsoring company of the Eurovision Song Contest” is Moroccanoil, an Israeli company based in New York that pays “millions of euros to the organization for advertising space” during the breaks of the contest. Sumar also recalls that RTVE is a member of the European Broadcasting Union and, therefore, “participates in its internal debates with its own voice.” “Like Slovenian public television, RTVE has sufficient capacity to request the review and debate of Israel's candidacy for its continuous attacks on the Palestinian people,” he continues. “Eurovision is an event of diversity, solidarity, respect and cooperation between different European and non-European countries, so the participation of a country that systematically violates these values is intolerable,” he adds. Therefore, taking into account the “change of direction of the EBU’s internal policies based on the expulsion of Russia” and “the escalation of genocide in Gaza”, the group led by Vice-President Yolanda Díaz asks the RTVE Corporation if it will request the EBU “to debate the participation of the Israeli representation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2025” and if “the RTVE Corporation believes that the acts perpetrated by the Israeli Army in the Gaza Strip are compatible with the values of RTVE and the EBU”.
